Week of September 4th

UAI Staff News

Volume VI

Issue 3

September 4th, 2018

[175 School Days Remaining]

Announcements

Welcome Back To School!   This week marks the official start of the 2018-2019 school year for NYC public schools.  The mission and goals to bring equity to all NYCDOE students and families run directly from our Chancellor, through our Supertindent and Urban Assembly partner, and straight into our school.  One of the biggest themes for us this year is our ongoing work to collectively find ways to connect our individual classroom efforts to that of the larger mission of our school, the Urban Assembly and NYCDOE at large.  As a school of math and science designed for young women, our school is rooted in creating parity and empowerment for our students.   At times the day-to-day challenges and details of the work obscure the root reasons of why we are here - of what drives us to do the work we do.  From developing high-quality lessons that push students to think deeply about our curriculum to providing the social-emotional instructional support our students critically need, it is easy to lose sight of the end-goal.   In the end, at UAI, we believe that by completing college and achieving post-secondary success, our students will be empowered to improve their social mobility and thus have a greater impact on social equity.  

2018-2019 School Year Goals.  With college completion and post-secondary success as the over-arching mission for all of our students at UAI, our work centers on the quality and rigor of learning that we engineer for our students every day - both in and outside of the classroom.

• Rigorous Instruction:  Lesson Planning and Execution.  The amount of time and quality of thought that teachers put into planning for student thinking determines the quality and rigor of classroom instruction.  By providing professional development support paired with the time required to engage in this level of planning, the quality of teacher planning (Danielson Domain 1e) will improve from 60% to 75% of teachers being Effective or Highly Effective by June 2019.  

• Collaborative Teacher:  Lesson Rehearsals and Collaborative Look Fors.  When teachers work collaboratively to critique and improve planning, we improve student outcomes.  Through using circular 6R periods and Monday PD time to collaboratively plan lesson activity look-fors and/or rehearse lessons, we aim to achieve the following outcomes by June 2019
• The capacity of teachers to successfully execute lessons and thus maximize the quality of student intellectual engagement (Danielson 3c) will improve from 49% to 60% of teachers being Effective or Highly Effective.
• The capacity of teachers to effectively plan for and react to student thinking (Danielson 3d) as a result of lesson activities will improve from 49% to 60% of teachers being Effective or Highly Effective
• As a result of improved lesson execution and evaluation of student thinking, student performance will improve across classroom as evidenced by at least a 15% increase in all NY state middle school and Regent exam scores.

• Supportive Environment:  Lesson Planning through our Students Perspectives.  Through our work in rigorous instruction and collaborative teachers, we will also focus on making sure see themselves in our curriculum and are equipped with the social-emotional understanding and skills to be successful at UAI and ready to navigate college upon graduation.  Curriculum selection and teacher-student interactions will reflect cultural understanding and responsiveness.  Strategic social-emotional support and explicit instruction will develop SEL skills across all grades.  By June 2019, we will see the following 
• Students with 90% or more attendance will increase from 85% of students to 90% of students. 
• Classroom removals and suspensions will decrease by at least 15% over last years' numbers.
• Supportive Environment Survey results will show an increase in select survey indicators (TBD by staff and students)

• Strong Family Ties:  Family-Teacher Partnerships.  Through leveraging existing PD time, family outreach time, and support from our partners like Girls Inc., MSQI, and College Access for All, we will increase contact and effective communication between home and school and provide parent training and support to continuing learning objectives at home.  By June 2019, we will see achievement in the following areas
• 80% of parents/guardians will attend SLCs in Fall and Spring
• At least 70% of parents will successfully complete School Survey
• Growth in parent-selected indicators of Survey (specific indicators of parent satisfaction will be selected at first SLT meeting in September)

• Effective Leadership:  Staff vestiture into the Mission and Vision of UAI through Cultivating Effective Peer Leaders and work with the PD Committee.   Through the work of teacher planning teams led by school administrators and teacher leads (Kiri, Annie, Jen, Brodie, Marsha, Rebecca, Alison, Jamie, and Danielle R), schoolwide culture will effectively connect to and further the mission and vision of the school.  By June 2019, teachers will understand the impact of their individual work as it attends to the larger scope of the school, Urban Assembly, and the NYCDOE as evidenced by
• From 66% to 81% of staff affirming that program coherence is strong at UAI.

School Partners.  These are ambitious goals for the year.  Our work is harder because our students need that much more from us in order to reach parity with their peers outside their current socio-economic class and race.  This year, we have a lot of help.  

• Instructional Planning Support.  The core of our school is instruction.  As a result, we have a variety of instructional support folks that provide on-going professional development and resources to our staff throughout the course of the year.  Not everyone accesses everything, but everyone has access to something for support!  Here's our network of friends and supporters:
• Artisan Teaching - Through working with consultant Ken Baum, our science and social studies teachers receive in-depth instructional support in planning, lesson execution, and assessment.
• Literacy Design Collaborative - Our partnership with LDC provides our ELA teachers with a bevy of tools and resources that support planning.  In addition, regular coaching with a Generation Ready coach supports the team with regular feedback on planning and even provides support in giving feedback on their feedback to students.   This year, LDC is aiming to expand support to MS Science and Social Studies. 
• Middle School Quality Initiative - This is our first year in MSQI.  The aim of MSQI is to make sure that all students are reading at grade level by the time they leave us in 8th grade.  Literacy isn't something that happens for 55minutes in English once a day.  Literacy is everywhere.  Our MS teams will be engaging in a variety of work this year to help support the development of literacy in our MS and better prepare our students for success in HS and beyond.
• New Visions Science & Social Studies PD. Many or our Math, Social Studies, and Science teachers are using the New Visions Curriculum.  They provide on-going PD support throughout the year to help teachers understand lessons, units, and assessments.  In addition, New Visions PD enable solo teachers to connect with other teachers teaching the same course, creating a community among small, progressive schools like ours.
• The For Alls. The DOE has a variety of programs aimed at building equity and access for all NYCDOE students.  Through coaching support, resource supplements, and access to professional development, teachers, counselors, and other staff receive support from the following initiatives:
• College Access for All (High School and Middle School)
• Algebra For All
• AP For All
• Computer Science For All
• Affinity and Urban Assembly.  Finally, through the support of our Affinity (Superintendency) Group and the Urban Assembly, we receive a variety of specialized instructional supports in SPED and ENL as well as supports for our school culture through Resilient Scholars, administrative support, dean/social worker/parent coordinator training.

To Do This Week

Tuesday Professional Development.   The first PD day is a Tuesday, so we will be running on our usual Extended Day schedule 8:30-4:05PM.  Please review the  Agenda.   Breakfast will be provided from 8:00-8:30 (from Panera).  We will begin promptly at 8:30AM.  To prepare for our first PD together please make sure you come with the following

• <<Reminder>> Personal Mission - What drives you?  Think about your own narrative.  Why did you choose to go into teaching?  Why did you choose to work with our population of students?  Why did you choose to come to or remain at UAI?  Be ready to share this narrative with your peers!
• <<Reminder>> First Weeks' Lessons - During our planning time, if you are the newest member of your team (see the agenda - your name is in bold), you will be rehearsing your lesson with the subject team.  Please be prepared to either share in print or digitally your lesson.  All teachers should have lessons to share with their planning partners during partner planning time.
• <<NEW>> Personal Goals - After reviewing the school goals and the schools' mission, what are your personal goals for the school year.  Enter them here.  In addition, what will success look like for you and what concrete measures are you planning to use to evaluate your progress throughout the year.